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OF 


HON. JAMES H. LANE, 

IN THE 

COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, 

AND 

GENERAL NEAL DOW, 

IN THE 

NEW CITY HALL, PORTLAND, 

THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 24, 1861, 


His Return from Captivity in a Rebel Prison. 


WASHINGTON: 

WILLIAM II. MOORS, PRINTER., 
484 llth street, between E and. F„ 

1864 . 

























if - ! ■■ 


■ 




a 


SPEECH 


OF 





# Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Fellow-Citizens: You will readily believe me, I know, when 
I assure you that it gives me great joy to stand here to-night. The contrast between 
what 1 see now and what I have beheld the last nine months, is wider and greater than 
I can tell you. In the South everywhere I have traveled I have beheld the desolation of 
war; everything I saw there, reminded me that war is desolating our land-; but as I came 
across the Potomac and traverse the Free States, I see nothing that reminds me of war. 
You know nothing of war, you feel nothing of the war, except those of you who have 
offered up loved ones for the honor and safety of their country. Everywhere in the 
South the land is desolate because of the war. As the President of the Confederate 
States said, they undertook an enterprise, the magnitude of which they did not at all 
comprehend; an enterprise that had no other purpose than the establishment of a great 
empire founded on human slavery. 

Exhaustion of Rebel Resources and Repudiation of their Currency. 

Until within a few months, the leading men of the South confidently believed in the 
success of their undertaking. Now they begin to realize the tremendous power of the 
North, in its naval resources, in men, money, and all the applianees of war, and every¬ 
where they despair of success. 

The resources of the Rebel country are exhausted. The Rebel Government is destitute 
of money, destitute of credit. It is impossible, as the rebels begin now to understand, to 
carry on this great war without money, without credit, without food, and with an abso¬ 
lute destitution of almost all the appliances of war. 

Just before I left Richmond the Rebel Congress had passed an act in effect repudiating 
all their currency, amounting to $850,000,000. On and after the first of April all the 
notes of the denomination of $100, not invested in four per cent, bonds (which are 
worthless in the market) are taxed one hundred per cent. All other notes are taxed thirty- 
three and one third per cent.; and thereafter are taxed ten per cent, a month, until their 
nominal value shall be absorbed in that way. The $100 Treasury notes amount to 
$400,000,000, and those of all other denominations to $450,000,000. 

This measure is a distinct repudiation of the entire circulation of $850,000,000. At 
the same time the Government proposes to issue a new series of Treasury notes, which 
they hope will have some credit in their domains. You will judge whether such a 
scheme will be likely to succeed ; whether a war can be carried on by money such as 
that; whether armies such as theirs can be paid and fed with such a currency. The 
financiers of the South are destitute of all knowledge upon the subject of finance, and 
they say in excuse for this ignorance, that hitherto all financial operations on a great 
scale have been entirely in the hands of Northern men, and carried on in Northern cities. 

Ignorance and Barbarity of the Rebel Home Guards. 

You have heard from high authority that the people of the South are semi-barbarians. 
Educated, so far as they are educated at all, in a disregard of the rights of four millions 
of their fellow-men ; accustomed as they are to see the rights of others trampled in the 
dust, and undertaking to subsist upon their unrecompensed labor, they learn to disre¬ 
gard the rights of everybody else, in their intercourse with both blacks and whites. 
You see it in their intercourse with each other. The Union prisoners have come in contact 
with this feeling very largely. I would not be understood that there are no cultivated 




4 


people at the South, but the Union prisoners have come in contact with snch a people, 
and they have experienced the most barbarous treatment. From the Confederate sol¬ 
diers at the front they have experienced kind and courteous treatment. But from the 
“Home Guards” it lias been more barbarous than any prisoners of war have suffered 
since the days of the “ Black Hole” of Calcutta. 1 know of nothing in the history of 
war to compare with the shameful treatment of the Union prisoners at Richmond and 
Atlanta, Georgia. 

Inhuman treatment of our prisoners by the Rebels. 

A large quantity of clothing and blankets was senlf*to my care to be distributed to 
the soldiers. I was permitted to visit them for the purpose of distributing the articles. 
Passing around the camp at Belle Isle, I saw the wretched condition of our soldiers as 
to clothing and quarters. Nearly one-half of them were without shelter of any kind, 
and all were in extreme want of clothing. As I passed around the camp they cried to 
me to send them food. Shelterless and almost naked, as many of them were, their firH 
want was food—their chief suffering was from hunger. On my return to Richmond, I 
addressed a note to General Winder, in command there, stating that one-h'alf the soldiers 
were without shelter,and all without sufficient food, and asking his immediate attention 
to their miserable condition. '1 be result was that I was not permitted to visit the soldiers 
any more, their condition was not alleviated, and these stores were put into the hands 
of another officer, who would conduct himself toward the Rebel authorities with a great 
deal more forbearance than I was supposed to be capable of. Soldiers perished there at 
about the rate of five hundred per month during the winter months, as we were in¬ 
formed. 

Scenes at Belle Isle. The Rebel soldi Irs steal clothing and provisions from 

prisoners. 

As I was at Belle Isle, I went into the hospital, consisting of tents without any floor, 
the sick lying upon the ground, without blankets, without pillows, some of them with 
sticks of wood for pillows, and on protesting to General Winder against this treatment, 
I was refused permission to visit those poor creatures for the future. The Government 
sent large quantities of provisions to the soldiers as well as the officers. Much of this 
was stolen, so that Yankee overcoats were very common. Soldiers in Yankee overcoats 
promenading the streets of Richmond drew so mwch attention that they caused these 
coats to be colored black. They were ashamed to be seen with Yankee overcoats stolen 
from the poor suffering soldiers. Large quantities of food as well as of clothing were 
sent there by the Sanitary Commission also, and these were stolen by the Rebel au-. 
thorities, and appropriated to their own use in large amounts. A very small proportion 
of these reached our soldiers. 

Scenes at Libby Prison. 

Libby Prison was a great tobacco warehouse, or, rather, three tobacco warehouses, 
three stories high upon the front, four stories upon the rear, separated by brick walls, 
through which doors were cut. Our officers were placed in these rooms with bare walls, 
bare floors, and without any blanket's. 

When 1 arrived there 1 was clad in the lightest summer clothes. It was a cold Oc¬ 
tober night, and my sufferings must have been extreme but for the kindness of my 
fellow-officers in supplying me with garments and blankets. After a while a great 
quantity ot blankets was sent by the fcanitary Commission, which made us compara- 
ti\ely comfortable, but we weie treated in no other respect than as so many negroes 
sent to Richmond to a barracoon lor sale. An officer who bad a very extensive ac¬ 
quaintance at the South said we were not nearly so well treated as that, for blacks sent 
for sale were kindly cared for that they might bring a better price. The Union officers 
were tieated as so many cattle turned into a slaughter-pen or barn to sleep. Confede- 
late officets in the bauds ot Lnioa authorities were treated courteously and kindly* 
that is right. J J r 

Incident of his exchange. 

A little incident occurred to myself which will illustrate the point of the difference 
of treatment between their prisoners and ours. I was exchanged fur General Lee. As 
l wa-s called down to pass off I had two large trunks to take away. I could obtain no 


5 


assistance in transporting them—no dray or other mode of conveyance. Some of my 
fellow-officers kindly tendered their assistance, and we carried them between us through 
the streets of Richmond to the steamer, on which we were ordered upon the forward 
deck and forbidden to come abaft the wheels. '-Ve were situated on the steamer like so 
many cattle, slaves, or swine on the way to market. At City Point we met General Lee 
in the magnificent saloon of the Federal steamer New York, we ourselves emerging from 
the forward deck of the dirty Rebel steamer. When General Lee and his fellow-officers 
were ready to change steamers the General stooped to fake his small valise, when the 
Union officer in command said to a soldier near, “ Sergeant, take the General’s valise 
on board for him 1” 1 mention this to show the sort of treatment we received down 

South, and that which the Rebels meet with when they fall into our hands. They are 
treated kindly, courteously ; we Rudely, barbarously. We don’t complain, because we 
will strike a balance with them one of these days. [Cries of “ good,” and cheers.] 

Union men in the South—Shooting of Union Soldiers at the prison win¬ 
dows. 

There are a great many Union people down South, even in Virginia; Union men and 
Union women. I shall not give any names. We had communication with Union people 
by writing and by signals, and the rebels could not prevent it. They threatened to 
shoot us if we looked out of the windows. One of their own men looked out and they 
shot hitn. They were resolved to shoot a Yankee as an offset for this, and a rebel sen¬ 
tinel fired several times at us without success. They were exceedingly mortified at 
shooting their own man, the ball entering the right eye and stopping at the back of the 
head. These rebel sentinels watched our men at the windows very much as boys hunt¬ 
ing squirrels and looking into the trees for thtir game. But many of the guards gave 
us all the information which came to their knowledge of what was going on around 
Richmond, as to the pressure for food, and in all other matters. 

Kilpatrick'’s Raid—Preparations to blow up Libby Prison . 

They told us of Kilpatrick’s raid. On the 1st of March arrangements had been made 
to receive him. And whfctt do you suppose the arrangements were ? To defend Rich¬ 
mond ? Was that it ? No. They mined Libby Prison, with the intention of blowing up 
it and us ; to use their own phrase, “ to blow us to hell!” [Voice—** Js there proof of 
that?”] That is capable of proof. I cannot tell you how the fact was intimated to us 
the next day without betraying those from whom the intimation came. On the morning 
of Wednesday, March 2, after we had been informed of the gunpowder plot, Dick Tur¬ 
ner, the Inspector of Military Prisons, was asked by many officers, at different times, if 
we were correctly informed, and he assured us it was true; that a large quantity of 
powder had been placed under the prison to blow us up if Kilpatrick had come in, and 
that it would be done yet if attempts were made to rescue us. ‘ 

The Rev. Dr. Smith, President of Raridolph-Macon College, well known down South, 
and known in the North too, as an able and influential man, came into the prison to 
visit Lieut. Col. Nichols, of the 18th Connecticut regiment, with whom he was ac¬ 
quainted. He said that powder had been placed in the basement for the purpose of 
“ blowing us into atoms.” Col. Nichols did not believe it. Dr. Smith assured him it was 
so. He had then come from the office of Judge Ould, Commissioner of Exchanges, who 
told him it was so. The Rev. Dr. McCabe said the same thing to Col. Cesnola, of the 
4th New York Cavalry, and others. fSome officers were in the kitchen at the back 
window, directly over the door leading into the cellar. Major Turner, the commandant 
of the prison—Dick Turner—and four or five rebel officers, went into the cellar, and on 
coming out they remained a few moments at the door, and one of the officers said, ‘‘By 
G—d, if you touch that off it will blow them to hell, sure enough.” 

On the morning we came away, Major Turner assured Capt. Sawyer and Capt. Flynn, 
who were exchanged in connection with myself, that powder was there, and he said, 
“ Rather than have you rescued, I would have blown you to hell, even if we had gone 
there ourselves.” At first we could not believe it; not that we did not suppose them 
capable of it. We did not suppose them to be fools enough to be guilty of an act like 
that. The destruction of nine hundred Union officers in that way would not have been 
a fatal blow to the Union cause, but it would have drawn down upon them the execra¬ 
tions of mankind ; it would have united the Northern people as one man, and would 
have fired the Northern lysart with an intense indignation, and when Richmond should 


6 


be captured, it would have been utterly destroyed, and blotted out forever from the 
earth. At first we could not believe that such an act could have been contemplated, 
but we now regard it as established by satisfactory proof. Such is the temper of the 
leaders of the rebellion ! Such their character ! 

The Negroes—How the Rebels use them, and what they think of their use by 

the Federals. 

The negroes ! It seems to strike them with horror that we should enlist in the public 
service the negro. A great many conversations 1 have had with civilians as well as offi¬ 
cers on the subject. They say it, is barbarous, unknown in the history of mankind. 
They say the negroes are their property. Our answer is, we take away your horses and 
your mules. We use them to draw baggage trains and in the artillery service, 'wherever 
we can make them useful. You also take away our horses and our mules. I tell them 
when we cannot carry off the horses and mules, we destroy them: and they do the same 
by ours if they can. They admit that this is according to the usages of war. We 
find a part of their population very friendly to us and hostile to them. They use them 
to dig their intrenchments, because they find them useful. We also use them in any way 
in which we can find them useful. If we could make horses or mules bear arms and fire 
guns, we should do it. We can put arms into the hands of the blacks, and find them 
useful. 

They say it is atrocious to raise up against them their own servants—their own prop¬ 
erty. It is in accordance with the usages of all nations, through all history, for an in¬ 
vading army to avail itself of the aid, in everyway, of any part of the population of the 
invaded country, which can by promises#of advantage, or payment/ or liberty, be in¬ 
duced to lend their support. The blacks, everywhere in the South, flock to our stand¬ 
ard, eager to aid us in the suppression of the rebellion, thereby overthrowing slavery. 
To accept their assistance, and to seek it is a perfectly legitimate act, while to reject it 
would be the extreme of folly. 

The rebels have said that we could not find the negroes useful as soldiers, that they 
were cowards, and would run at the sight of a white man and a whip. But they have 
long since found that an escaped slave, armed on equal ground, is fully a match for his 
former master. 

% 

JVliat General Butler thinks of Negro soldiers. 

Gen. Butler told me that he has two excellent black regiments of cavalry, and that in 

recent fight of 600 of them against a greatly superior force of rebel cavalry, supported 
by infantry and four pieces of artillery, the blacks won a brilliant victory. They charged 
the rebels in the most admirable manner, with loud shouts of defiance, and with the 
sabre put them to rout, and drove them in confusion off the field.- In many cases the 
rebels have put colored soldiers—prisoners—to death as soon as they were captured, 
and in this case the cavalry took no prisoners ; they gave no quarter, and asked none. 
The barbarous execution of black prisoners by the rebels has not intimidated the negro 
soldiers, but, on the contrary, has exasperated them to such a degree that they are quite 
ready to accept the rebel policy of “no quarter 1” On the occasion I speak of, a black ser- 
veant was surrounded and called upon to surrender. IIis reply was, “ No quarter, I 
choose to die in battle and not by the halter,” and he killed several of his assailants be¬ 
fore he fell himself, covered with wounds. 

What General Dow thinks of Negro soldiers. 

I have myself seen blacks placed in most trying positions in battle, and once had 
them in my own command in front of an attacking column, carrying timber for crossing 
a ditch, and no veteran troops could behave better, and no position could be imagined 
where more courage would be required. The rebels have boasted that they could put 
armed blacks to flight simply with the flourish of the Whip ; but they have already 
learned that the emancipated slave is a mart , aud that in this war he is stimulated to 
brave deeds by every noble consideration that can animate the heart. 

When I left home, more than two years ago, there was a good deal of speculation in 
regard to negro soldiers, but the prevailing sentiment seemed to be that they would not 
be practically useful, and ought not to be permitted to help us fight our" battles. I 
rejoice now at the change in public sentiment which I perceivfc exists here. 


7 


Encouragement given to the Rebels by Northern Sympathizers and the 

opposition to Emancipation. 

If we had commenced this war with such a public sentiment as we have now we should- 
have triumphed long ago. 1 he administration in the prosecution of this war has been 
constantly embarrassed by divisions among our own people, and by a perverse public 
sentiment at the North in relation to the whole question of slavery. A large party ex¬ 
isted here whose sympathies were supposed to be in favor of slavery and against eman¬ 
cipation, and against any effort to preserve the Union and the Government. The rebels 
were greatly encouraged to perseverance by this fact, while our Administration was 
necessarily embarrassed by it. Violent was the opposition to any measure looking at 
emancipation and the enlistment of negro soldiers. But public opinion has been greatly 
changed, until at present the numbers are few who oppose the former measure or object 
to the latter. In two short years, how wonderful the change ! 

Eke Rebels hope that Lincoln w ill not be re-elected. They desire the success 

of Chase or Fremont. 

At present the rebels are looking anxiously at movements at the North in relation to the next 
Presidential election. Their hope is that some other man than Mr. Lincoln may be nominated 
and elected to the Presidency. The election of any other person they will regard as a sure 
indication that the loyal North tires of the war , and means to change its policy in relation to 
it. The leaders of the rebellion have now no other hope of success than this , and their hope is that 
those may come into power who will say to them , 11 Erring sisters, depart in peace !” The 
officers in Libby Prison , who had abundant opportunities to see the feeling of the rebels on 
this subject , were anxious that the loyal men of the North should perceive the danger of lend¬ 
ing any encouragement to it. No man has a greater respect than myself for Mr. Chase 
and Mr. Fremont, nor a more entire conviction of their loyalty and their ability to conduct 
the affairs of the country with honor to themselves and to the advantage of the Nation, 
but for this time I should regard the nomination of any other person than Mr. Lincoln as a 
public misfortune. 

Prospects for the Next Campaign. 

My conviction is, that the ensuing campaign, if active, earnest and successful, will be 
the last. Preparations are in progress to this end, and I am confident that the rebellion 
cannot withstand or survive the onset. Its finances are utterly ruined ; its credit entirely 
exhausted, at home and abroad ; its leaders despair of success ; the masses of the people, 
weary and exhausted by war, desire peace on any terms; its armies are unpaid and un¬ 
derfed, and the conscripts of which they are entirely composed, have no heart in the 
struggle, since in any event they have nothing to hope or to gain, while they and their 
families are the greatest sufferers by it. The people everywhere ifithe South are suffer¬ 
ing extremely for want of every comfort, and even for the common necessaries of life ; 
and they know that it is only through peace that they can escape from their perils and 
distresses. ' - - 

When the War will End. 

I have often been asked at the South, by civilians as well as officers of high rank 
when I thought the war would end. My reply has been uniformly: When one party or 
the other shall be thoroughly exhausted; and that they could judge as well as I which 
party that would probably be. The North has twenty-one millions of people, the South 
has between three and four millions of w 7 hites within the rebel lines; the North has a 
great and constantly increasing navy, the South has none at all; the North has an un¬ 
bounded credit, the South has exhausted any that it ever had ; the North is contending 
for its national existence, the South for the power to extend and perpetuate human 
slavery—an enterprise in which no nation sympathizes with it, while all civilized people 
everywhere abhor it. It is impossible that God can look’ with favor upon such an 
undertaking. 

Insufficiency oj rations furnished to Union officers at Richmond—Horrible 

suffering of Federal Prisoners. 

The rations supplied by the rebels to the Union officers at Richmond, are unfit for 
human food, and incapable of sustaining life in a healthy condition. Thej consist onl' 


8 


of a small quantity of bread made of corn meal, unsifted, and manufactured in the worst 
manner, and about half a gill of rice two or three times a week. Occasionally, a single 
medium-sized potato or three or four small ones are given to-each man, and three or 
four times, a small turnip has been given to each. And this is all. For a time sup¬ 
plies sent by friends to the officers were honestly and promptly delivered to them, but 
for some weeks before I left Richmond, this was not done, and there were accumulated 
there more than 4,000 boxes sent to officers, which had been detained from them. r l hese 
boxes are now systematically plundered by the officials of their most valuable contents, 
especially of clothing. Union officers are subjected to the most humiliating treatment 
by the prison officials. 

The Sanitary Commission sent to my care great quantities of comforts and luxuries 
for the use of the officers. A small quantity ot these was delivered, but the greater 
part of them was retained by the rebel officials for their own use and for sale ; In our 
purchases we found many of these Sanitary goods, stolen by the officials and sold to 
us at enormous prices. 

The rations furnished to the privates consisted entirely of corn bread of miserable quality 
and insufficient quantity, which produces derangement in the digestive organs, and 
death. The soldiers are slowly wasting away, and die of sheer starvation and cold. 
Two of them sent off from Richmond at the same time with myself, died of exhaustion 
before reaching Annapolis. 

These poor creatures were reduced to such a state of extreme suffering that many of 
them were demented. They could not tell the name of their colonel or the number ot 
their regiment. One of them had become perfectly idiotic from long protracted suffer¬ 
ing, many of them having slept all winter in the open air, with no shelter, and without 
overcoats or blankets. They were all supplied at the commencement of the winter with 
both, sent them by the United States Government, butthej r were compelled to sell them, 
in many instances, to procure the means of subsistence, their rations not being suffi¬ 
cient to support them in a state of health. 

Depreciation of Rebel Currency. 

It is understood down South that all rebel a promises to pay” are to be repudiated. 
There is no one who pretends that it is to be anything else. Rebel currency and rebel 
bonds are spoken of in a tone of contempt by all the public papers. One of the Rich¬ 
mond papers, in an article on finance, quoted a paragraph from The London Times, in 
which it was said that in marketing in the rebel States the money was taken in the bas¬ 
ket, and the purchase carried home in the pocket-book. 

In a police report The Examiner said there was found upon the person of one accused 
of stealing, $40 in gold, $75 in greenbacks, and about half a peck of Confederate 
Treasury notes and bonds. The same paper spoke of speculators who had made money 
by the “ bale,” as if it had been hay, and valued by the cubic foot. The soldiers said 
the} 1- were paid by the paymaster walking down the line with baskets of money, every 
man taking out for himself as much as he pleased. Their stated pay is $14 per month, 
while negroes impressed into the service—or their owners—received $45 a month. The 
soldiers say the slaves are treat*! much better than themselves, especially when sick, 
because a dead negro is a loss to his owner, while a dead soldier is thought to be a loss to 
nobody ; he is only a “ poor white,” who is regarded everywhere in the South as a 
nuisance—occupying a lower place in the social scale than the slave. 

The South despairs of Success. What they have lost. 

The Southern people now generally understand that the Rebel cause is lost, and are 
inquiring with anxiety as to the course that will be taken with their persons and prop¬ 
erty by the Washington Government. I have been many times inquired of by officers 
and civilians upon that point, and have always assured them that the persons and prop¬ 
erty of the masses of the people would not be interfered with ; that only the active pro¬ 
moters and leaders of the Rebellion would be punished in person and property ; that 
the Union men of the country who had been plundered by the Rebels would be indem¬ 
nified out of the property of the aggressors. Beyond that I thought confiscation would 
not be enforced. The losses of the South by the Rebellion up to this time have been 
enormous. The Treasury notes and bonds of the Rebel Government are not less in 
amount than $1,600,000,000., an entire loss to the people. The money value of the slaves 
at the commencement of this war was not less than $2,500,000,000, soon to be of no 


9 


value to the owners And the loss of cotton, sugar, and tobacco crops, and the losses 
by the desolation of the Southern country, cannot be less than $1,POO,000,000, making 
the enormous amount of $5,600,000,000 ! an amount greater than that of the national 
debt of Great Britain. 

Every branch of industry in the South is prostrate and ruined; the entire country is 
desolate. Every white male between the ages of 18 and 60 is declared by law to be in 
the military service of the Confederacy, and no man in the entire country can be en¬ 
gaged as a clerk, artisan, or workman in any counting-room, or factory, or other estab¬ 
lishment, without a regular military detail from the authorities. Without that no man 
can remain at home to attend to his own affairs, however important. The Southern 
country is a vast camp, full of soldiers, disciplined and undisciplined—every man a sol¬ 
dier—with none to feed, clothe, or pay them. 

What the North will gain by the War. 

To the North, the loyal North, the war has cost fearfully in treasure and in blood 
The treasure is to us of small account, because our wealth is increasing with wonderfug 
rapidity. A debt that may seem large to us will be small for the next generation, whose 
ability to pay will be fourfold greater than ours. But the expenditure of life—we can¬ 
not measure that by gold. *But we freely lay all upon the altar of our country—fortune 
and life—to preserve our nation from those who seek to blot it out from the map of the 
world, and to pronounce man incapable of self-government. The institutions of personal, 
civil, and religious liberty that we have inherited from our fathers, we mean to transmit 
unimpaired to our children, and to that end we gladly devote our fortunes and our lives. 

When this war shall be ended, and liberty shall be proclaimed through the land to all 
the inhabitants thereof, and our Government shall be established in the love and fear of 
God forever, the survivors will see that the value of it to the nation and to mankind will 
be far beyond its cost, and those who now mourn the death of father, brother, son, slain 
in battle or starved in rebel prisons, will be comforted by the thought that their dear 
ones perished in the cause of civilization, humanity and Christianity, and that by their- 
death Justice and Truth are established on an everlasting throne. 












HE PEOPLE’S CHOICE. 


' 0 : 

' a : 

li'J 




SPEECH 

OF 


HON. JAMES H. LANE 


BEFORE THE 


UNION LINCOLN CAMPAIGN CLUB, 


AT THE 

COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, 

MARCH 30, 1864. 

- * 8 . ■ — -V 


Importance of the approaching Elec¬ 
tion . 

It is a distinguished honor to be permit¬ 
ted to address so large and intelligent gn 
audience, at this important period in our 
country’s history, at the metropolis of the 
nation. We are here to review the politi¬ 
cal condition of the country, preparatory 
to the approaching presidential election. 
This is the first meeting, as I learn from 
your President, of your organization, 
formed for the purpose of uniting the ener¬ 
gies of the Union men of New York for 
that election, the most important in the 
history of the country. We have had many 
important elections, but never one so im¬ 
portant as that now approaching. In it is 
involved, in the opinion of your speaker, 
the very existence of our beloved country. 
If the nominees of the Union party are 
elected, our country will be restored, and a 
permanent peace secured, upon the basis 
of universal freedom. If we are defeated, 
a disgraceful compromise will be the re¬ 
sult, as certain as night follows day, and 
we and our descendants compelled to mourn 
over a dissevered country and decimated 
power. [Applause.] In this view, how 


great the responsibility resting upon every 
voter, and how important that he should 
take that responsibility home to his heart 
and to his conscience, ere he makes up his 
election, and the manner in which he will 
exercise his suffrage! At all times the right 
of suffrage is sacred to the true patriot, 
but at the coming election it should.be ex¬ 
ercised with more than usual caution, for 
your country is the stake. 

How he came to he an Anti-Slavery 
man. 

If any of you have heard of me at all, 
you have heard of me as an anti-slavery 
man. [Applause.] It may not be apropos, 
but I will give an idea of what first opened 
my eyes to the enormity of slavery. I was 
born and reared a Democrat, and—oh ! 
what a thing to say before God—taught to 
believe that slavery was a divine institu¬ 
tion. 

For the purpose of showing how my first 
anti-slavery convictions were produced, I 
will relate an anecdote of a young man 
who, some eighteen years ago, went with 
me from my home in Indiana on a voyage 
down the Mississippi river. I was convey- 







11 


ing produce to the Southern country, and 
this young man, who was a carpenter, 
asked me for a passage to the coast. The 
young man was poor, and had a widowed 
mother and a sister, and was in search of 
employment. I felt so much for the young 
man that I rowed him ashore myself, and 
went with him to a slave owner who re¬ 
sided on the Mississippi, and who, to all 
appearances, was a gentleman. He listened 
patiently to the young man’s case, ex¬ 
pressed his sorrow for the condition of his 
mother and sister, and said that he would 
give him some employment, but that he had 
bought a couple of house carpenters the 
day before. These words have ever since 
been ringing in my ears. What would any 
Irish laborer or artisan say—and I have a 
right to speak of Irishmen, because I have 
Irish blood in my veins—what would they 
say if. on applying for honorable employ¬ 
ment, they should be told, “ we would em¬ 
ploy you, but we bought a‘couple of house 
carpenters yesterday.” (Laughter.) It 
would be enough to convince any one that 
such a thing as liberty had no existence 
here. And what right has any man in this 
Republic to buy house carpenters, or any 
other kind of carpenters ? (Slight hissing.) 

A Voice. I did hope that there were no 
copperhead Irishmen here. (Applause.) 

Mr. Lane. Yes, how proud would I be of 
my Irish blood if I could only know that 
there were no copperheads among my 
people. 

A soldier among the audience, dressed in 
full uniform, hereupon arose and reminded 
the speaker that there were Irish soldiers as 
well as Irish copperheads present. (Ap¬ 
plause.) 

Mr. Lane. If I were down there I would 
take that man by the hand. There cannot 
be much copperheadism in the heart where 
the hand has grasped the sword and the 
rifle for our country. (Applause.) 

President Lincoln the only man ivho 
did not falter in the hour of trial. 

To aid you in coming to a correct con¬ 
clusion in the exercise of the right of suf¬ 
frage, permit me to make a statement ofmat- 
ters that came within my personal knowl¬ 
edge. In April, 1861,1 went to Washington 
City, whilst the hearts of men were failing 
them and perplexity overspread the land. 1 
found there one party in favor of surrender¬ 
ing the Capital to the South, and moving the 
archives to Philadelphia; another party in 
favor of acknowledging the independence 
of the South, permitting the erring sisters 
to go in peace, hoping to retain the Capital 
for the time being. There was one man, 


however, who, cool a ,( V .ollected in the 
midst of universal exc /ement, resolved to 
retain the Capital, ev. A i if it required an 
armed soldier to every foot of territory 
within the District, and resolved to assert 
the sovereignty of the Government over 
every inch of land in the Republic, and to 
recover every fortress so rudely and ruth¬ 
lessly torn therefrom. That man, who has 
never faltered in this patriotic purpose, and 
who has labored to restore the Union by the 
exercise of skillful diplomacy and military 
power, with signal success, is Abu ah am Lin¬ 
coln, of Illinois. (Loud and continued ap¬ 
plause, and six cheers for Presid’t Lincoln.) 

The popular confidence will not be 
impaired by his re-election. 

When Mr. Lincoln was first elected to fill 
the place which he -now holds, it was 
through mere party or political necessity, 
but subsequent events abundantly show 
that a necessity greater than that of party 
now exists for continuing the reins of ad¬ 
ministration in his hands. Amongst the 
necessities for this continuance, we may 
enumerate the fact that more or less danger 
arises from disturbing the Executive De¬ 
partment in the midst of civil war, when 
precedent and former custom will justify 
Mr. Lincoln’s holding over for a second 
term. (Cheers.) Every reasonable man 
will admit that a change of Executive will 
most assuredly involve, and possibly change 
the policy of the war, and may dangerously 
unsettle for a time the aggressive move¬ 
ments of our arms. If changes are re¬ 
quired in the subordinate departments, 
they can be made by a careful, prudent, 
and judicious process under the hand of 
the present incumbent; for it requires no 
argument to satisfy the public mind that 
Mr. Lincoln earnestly desires to represent 
the will of the country in the recast of his 
Cabinet, which,dn my opinion, should fol¬ 
low his re-election. Further, it would be 
unwise to disturb the friendly relations 
which exist between this Administration 
and foreign Governments; for all must 
admit that our foreign relations are of the 
most delicate character, and that we should 
not take upon ourselves the slightest risk 
iu that direction. (Applause.) 

An able Foreign Policy. 

As for our foreign relations, they have 
never been so successfully managed as un¬ 
der the guidance of Mr. Lincoln and his 
Secretary of State. [Three cheers for W. H. 
Seward .) 









n 


If Mr. Lincoln tte re-elected, the people 
of the United States must do it without 
any advice or suggestion from him, and 
those who would stand in the way of the 
people’s will must fall as flat as if an ele¬ 
phant. had stamped on them. (Laughter.) 
Since Abraham Lincoln has so well dis¬ 
charged his duties in times of war, I have 
a curiosity to see how he will discharge 
them in times of peace. It is but common 
justice that he should be again elected. 

Traitors should be made to accept 
him. 

Again, so far as your speaker is concerned, 
he feels like compelling traitors to submit to 
the rule of him whom they have rejected in 
their treason and rebellion; and it is my opin¬ 
ion that this is no more than a just retribu¬ 
tion, and one I believe heaven would sanction; 
for a more wicked, causeless and infamous 
rebellion was never organized against man 
or government. 

Let us review the circumstances under 
which Mr. Lincoln came into power, and 
learn therefrom his capacity and ability for 
government. He was called to his high 
trust under circumstances the most exciting 
and trying. One half of the country was 
in rebellion around him. The best military 
skill in the lead of that rebellion flushed its 
instigators with all that confidence which 
military experience gives. Jeff’. Davis and 
his associates appeared more than a match ■' 
for the then inexperienced Executive of the 
country, called to the chair by a constit¬ 
uency confined to the Free States. The 
President’s position was truly embarrassing, 
and rendered all the more so by the threat¬ 
ening aspect of the European Powers, who 
hailed our troubles as the opportune mo¬ 
ment to strike the wedge in the fracture 
made in the Federal Union. 

Administrative biexperience. 

Again, he came into power surrounded 
by many friends inexperienced in the man¬ 
agement. of public affairs. The ripe expe¬ 
rience of the South had abandoned him ; 
half the North had imbibed its political 
tenets from the arbitrary tutorship of a 
partisan Democracy. Thus but a fraction 
of the administrative mind of the country, 
disciplined in matters of State, and compe¬ 
tent to breast the conflicting elements of 
civil and social disorganization, were dis¬ 
posed to come to his aid. Is it strange that 
under the circumstances some fear for the 
consequences should have filled the hearts 
of many true men ? 


Triumph over Embarrassments .— 
Douglas and his Patriotic Com¬ 
peers. The Popular Will. 

When all this is considered, we are aston¬ 
ished that he has been able to hold such a 
steady helm in the midst of the storm that 
is raging around the ship of State, which 
in its fury has tried every timber, tested 
every spar, strained every rope, and came 
well nigh sinking the noble craft. It was 
in that trying hour that the patriotism of 
Stephen A. Douglas and the men who acted 
with him shone out in all its grandeur, and 
for which the country will long honor them. 
This view of the difficulties and embarrass¬ 
ments of President Lincoln, and the skill 
with which he surmounted them, amply 
demonstrate his capacity for governing, and 
show that the instincts of the people, which 
are always right, have fastened on the right 
man for the place. The popular desire be¬ 
ing so conspicuously manifest, the fact of 
secondary organizations within our political 
party, for the strange design of defeating this 
admitted favorite of the people, is a just ob¬ 
ject of reprobation. [A voice—“ How are 
you, Pomeroy ? ’’] 

The Emancipation Proclamation a 
glorious monument of the patience 
and sagacity of President Lincoln. 
The rock on which his enemies 
split. 

The principal pretext upon which the en¬ 
emies of Mr. Lincoln excuse their attempts 
to thwart the popular will is, that he does 
not comeupto their standard of radicalism. 
To this I desire to call your especial atten¬ 
tion ; and I assert that the Emancipation 
Proclamation freeing every slave, striking 
the shackles from the limbs of every human 
being in the rebellious States, was issued 
at the earliest possible moment that pru¬ 
dence would justify. And he who criticises 
Mr. Lincoln for not acting earlier upon this 
important question, betrays his ignorance 
of the situation and the danger that would 
have resulted from the premature issue of 
those papers, inasmuch as the Northern 
mind moved slowly up to the point of pre¬ 
paration, and only attained that prepara¬ 
tion by the quickening impulse of bloodshed 
and the thunder of cannon. These things 
should be remembered by those who would 
try li;m by partisan views, or murmur be¬ 
cause he was not inclined to strike a pre¬ 
mature blow at slavery, when by so doing 
Jae would only jeopardize the restoration of 
the Union and the emancipation of the slave. 
We should withhold our censure at the de- 



13 


liberate movements of this sagacious man, 
when we realize that the issuing of the 
Emancipation Proclamation came nigh los¬ 
ing to us the political power of the country. 
[Applause.] 

Popular repugnance to arming the 


These fault-finders complain that Mr. 
Lincoln was slow ii^ putting arms into the 
hands of the black man. On that question 
1 assert, fearlessly assert, that he moved at 
the earliest moment public sentiment would 
permit. Had this order been issued at an 
earlier day, the white soldiers would have 
resented it by mutiny, for not tillthousarids 
ot them had been slain, and other thousands 
■wounded and maimed, did they give a re¬ 
luctant consent to receive the aid of the 
black auxilliary; and even at this day there 
is a section in the Border States where we 
are not permitted to recruit colored soldiers. 
(“That’s so.”) 

I raised the first negro regiment in Kan¬ 
sas, and lor months I did not dare to come 
out with them, such was the state of 
public feeling. Now there is not a white 
soldier who is not willing that a black 
one should stop a bullet. I want to see 
no less than 500,000 negro troops in the 
field to help to crush out the rebellion, 
and to do another thing, that is. when the 
rebellion is over, that we may with negro 
regiments assert the Monroe doctrine, and* 
drive Maximilian out of Mexico.—(Knthusi- 
astic cheers, and three cheers for Mexico.) 


i 

of warning to those who are pushing for¬ 
ward the claims of any candidate or meas¬ 
ure clearly beyond the point at which the 
Anti-Slavery mind of the country is dis¬ 
posed to rest in its efforts for the emancipa¬ 
tion of the slave. We tell gentlemen that 
the movement to re-nominate him comes, 
not from the politicians of the country, but 
from the people ; and the assumed leaders 
who attempt to thwart the will of the coun¬ 
try will find to their sorrow that, at this 
date, they are not sufficiently powerful. 
The patriotic masses will have their own 
way this time, though politicians should 
go down. (Great applause.) 

Uncondit ional Emancipation , and the 
happy destiny of the Black Man. 

This revolution means the entire aboli¬ 
tion of the relation of master and slave, 
and the establishment of freedom in fact as 
well as in name, by fundamental enactment 
provided for by an amendment to the Consti¬ 
tution of the United States. It means the re¬ 
peal of many laws which have disgraced the 
statutes of the country, but does not mean in 
any manner to invalidate the future peace 
of the nation or the do mi nancy of our race ; 
it means a gradual and voluntary drifting 
of the black man into the semi-tropical belt 
of our country. (Applause.) There he is 
needed to aid in the development and gov¬ 
ernment of that magnificent country. On 
the return of peace he will not be so much 
needed here, and the law of necessity will 
govern his destiny, as it governs ours. 


Firm on the Anti-Slavery Platform. 

Firm and immovable stands ’Abraham 
Lincoln on the Anti-Slavery platform, and 
yet these croakers continue their fault-find¬ 
ing. [Applause.] Let a man be judged by 
his acts, and what has not Mr Lincoln done 
for the amelioration of the black man? If 
he has not declared himself in favor of the 
admixture of the two races, he honestly be¬ 
lieves, as I do, that it is far better for both 
races that they should separate and live 
distinct under the protective care of the 
same Government. (A voice—“ Would it 
hurt a Copperhead to mix him.”) Mr. Lane, 
well, I don’t know exactly; they have been 
practisingit for the last two hundred years. 
(Laughter.) 

A kind word of Warning. 

I would be untrue to the political inter¬ 
ests of the country, and to the political part}’ 
with which I act, if I did not utter a word 


The Emigration of our Forefathers 
to escape oppression—a precedent 
for the Black Man. 


Our forefathers came to this wilderness 
because they desired to escape from the 
oppression of class, because they desired 
to better their condition, arid leave a patri¬ 
mony for their children, in which their labor 
would be crowned with abundance. I may 
be mistaken in the signs of the times, but I 
think that so soon as the experiment now be- 
ingtri'ed to mingle the two races has finally 
failed, as fail it must, a stream of migration 
will set from the North to South that will 
solve this vexed question forever. Until 
then we should cherish the kindest feelings 
for our colored wards, and suppress the bru¬ 
tal passions that too often have disgraced the 
ruling race of the land. The fact that thou¬ 
sands of this people are being elevated to 
the position of the soldier is a guarantee to 
the advocates of the separation of the 
races that they have started ou a career to- 













14 


i 

ward the tropics, to return only as sojourn¬ 
ers. With them will go enough of our brain 
and nerve and skill to guide and direct them 
to empire and dominion there. 

The natural home of the Colored 
Race. 

I am no judge of the instincts of our peo¬ 
ple, if the Southward armed move of their 
freedmen does not stiike the public mind 
with favor, and will not be finally supported 
by the suffrages of the whole country. (Ap¬ 
plause.) I am forgiving them Western Texas 
to begin with, and the fee to the pubic 
lands therein under the Homestead law. If 
others can do better for them I will be hap¬ 
py to learn and co-operate. 

Emancipation not Amalgamation. 

Mr. Lincoln is irrevocably committed to 
the policy of emancipation and arming of 
the slaves. (Loud Cheers.) That party of 
which he is the respected leader, in their 
call for their Convention at Baltimore, have 
clearly committed the organization to crush¬ 
ing out the rebellion and the eradication of 
the cause thereof. What further is demanded 
at its hands? Shall we have a proclama¬ 
tion declaring the black man superior to the 
white, commanding the admixture of the 
races? Mr. President, I am called the rad¬ 
ical of radicals, yet I never can and never 
will admit that there is any race superior 
to my own, nor will I ever consent that an 
act of treason to our race shall be delibe¬ 
rately perpetrated, nor submit to the domin¬ 
ion of any other race in this Republic. Nor 
will I ever consent to act with any party 
which advocates the admixture of the two 
races, as such admixture would I firmly be- 
leive, produce the deterioration of our own 
race, without benefiting the black race. I 
submit that agitation on the subject is mis¬ 
chievous,calculated to strengthen the hands 
of our political enemies, and to excite the 
jealousies of one race against the other. 
Give us Mr. Lincoln as our standard-bearer 
upon such a platform as I have indicated, 
and we can carry every Congressional Dis¬ 
trict in the loyal States. (Long continued 
cheering.) 

Love of Country paramount to Per¬ 
sonal Considerations . 

Fellow-citizens, I have heard no name 
mentioned in connection with the Presiden¬ 
cy of the Union party, if nominated at the 
Baltimore Convention, but will receive my 
zealous support. The people will be tlieie 


represented by faithful and competent del¬ 
egates. In their decision I will cheerfully 
acquiesce. It is a duty, in my opinion, we 
owe our country. I do not envy the man 
or set of men* who will encourage dissatis¬ 
faction in the decision of that convention, 
either before or after its meeting. The 
candidates of our party who fail to submit 
their claims to that convention will incur a 
grave responsibility. Never has a conven¬ 
tion assembled, and never will one so 
important be held, as that summoned to 
Baltimore. Should the nominee of that 
convention fail, the shrieks of prostrate 
freedom w r ould resound throughout the 
civilized world, and woe be to the men who 
contribute to such a result. 

Honorable competition approved , not 
censured. 

While in favor of the nomination of Mr. 
Lincoln, I have not assailed and do not pre¬ 
sume to assail the candidates of my own 
party. Their merits and popularity are the 
property of the party. To disparage their 
merits or weaken their influence is a crime 
against the organization. He who indulges 
in such a course is neither just or politic. 

| This battle to be fought with ballots in 
November is as important as any battle to 
be fought with bullets during the war. 
How would it sound if a portion of any 
command should stack their arms on the 
eve of battle, and refuse to fight because 
they disliked their general? 

United action necessary. 

We must not flatter ourselves that the 
battle is to be won without unity of action, 
for our ehemies are active and united on 
the general ground of opposition, whatever 
else may be their difi'erences. It is* their 
policy to disparage our strong men, to un¬ 
derrate the noble deeds of our political 
friends, and overrate the qualities of their 
own ; to scoff at our measures, which be¬ 
cause of their magnitude and merit com¬ 
mand the approval of the country. In short, 
to crush out the party of progress and Union 
by the old game of detraction, falsely called 
politics. We must teach the country to 
give that word a better meaning; hereafter 
let it mean true statesmanship ; let men 
and measures be put upon their merits, and 
there let them stand or fall. 

What the Rebels condemn ive should 
uphold. 

There is one special cause of offence to 
our opponents both in the'North and South 










15 


•—the Proclamation of Amnesty; the men 
in rebellion think it the concentration of 
all tyranny avid oppression, humbling their 
pride ; and, above all, calculated to weaken 
their armies by causing desertion. Judged 
by this standard, it is good and worthy of 
support. May its clarion^tones sound loud 
and clear through all the South, calling off 
the guilty and deluded masses from their 
hopeless struggle. It can be no humilia¬ 
tion to swear fealty to the Government their 
fathers founded. (Applause.) 

No Northern man has a right to 
complain of the Administration. 

But why should the men of the North 
who are in opposition to the Administra¬ 
tion complain ? Does it not preserve the 
fundamental laws of the Southern States, 
slavery excepted? Does it not leave the 
vexed question of the franchises of the 
negro to the restored States themselves ? 
It does not propose to Africanize the terri¬ 
tory in dispute unless the States located in 
that territory adopt the African population 
thereof as their citizens. What’s the mat¬ 
ter with Copperheads ? Ah! the actual 
offence is, that proclamation is second to 
no act of Mr. Lincoln’s life, except the acts 
of Sept. 22, 1862, and Jan. 1, 1863. 

The claims of the Civilian not in 
conflict with those of the Military 
hero. 

Fellow-citizens, I am not one of those 
who fear that a military chieftain will be 
pitted against Mr. Lincoln by our oppo¬ 
nents, for there is an instinct in the Amer¬ 
ican mind adverse to the elevation of a 
military hero to the Presidency in time of 
civil war. They fear a danger to the more 
delicate institutions of the country. The 
hand of the military chief is necessarily an 
iron hand, destitute of that delicate sensi¬ 
bility which characterizes the hand of the 
civilian. While the people are anxious 
that the crushing grasp of an iron hand 
should be placed on the rebellion, they are 
by no means anxious to place the nerves 
and arteries of Republican life in such a 
hand till after the war is closed. With 
General Grant in the field, and the remain¬ 
ing eminent military men, either in the 
active support of Mr. Lincoln or passive to 
the event, there is but little doubt of our 
success. - [Great applause.] Shall it be said 
that this political support will be wanting 
at the hands of such generals in the hour 
of the country’s need? Will not tho£e 
noble men who are ready to lay down their 



lives for their country, to spill their blood 
in her behalf, agree to hold their claims in 
abeyance four years longer, until returning 
peace strikes off their harness, the helmet 
is laid by, and the sword and spear repose 
on the rack, in mansion hall, as honored 
mementoes of the past—until their hand 
and nerves are again adjusted to the civil¬ 
ian’s habit and the statesman’s jealous care 
of constitutional provisions and statute 
law. In the estimation of men of clear 
judgment it is best for the people of the 
country to retain all the military talent in 
the field, and rely on the existing Executive 
for another term of four years. (Applause.) 

Those who earn a doable share of 
public confidence should receive 
their reward. 

Again do I state the position, that it is 
my deliberate judgment, as well as that of 
thousands of our best men, that the coun¬ 
try should now, if ever, avail itself of the 
precedent and custom which have estab¬ 
lished the usage, of grading favored Ex¬ 
ecutives a double term. Why should we 
tamper with the underpinning in an imper¬ 
fect foundation just at the juncture when 
the. fiercest storm ever experienced by the 
resident has broke on the trembling super¬ 
structure, threatening to bring the whole 
fabric tumbling in ruins about his head.. 
Do not wisdom and policy dictate prudence 
and delay in regard to the proper time for 
change. (Cheering.) 

Mr. Lincoln , the Soldier " 1 s Friend. 

It has been said that others than Mr. 
Lincoln will have the vote of the army— 
that others are the favorites of the soldier. 

1 do not believe it. (Applause.) The army 
admire and love plain honesty. Mr. Lin¬ 
coln is a plain, honest man. The soldiers 
know that their wants have been his first 
care : that his chief attention has been their 
comfort and success. That while others 
have been plotting for the Presidency, the 
burden of his heart and the thoughts'of 
his mind have been employed about military 
success. He has not suffered those in the 
field to remain without proper support. 
Call after call has been made for troops to 
sustain those already in the struggle, whilst 
money has been expended without stint to 
assure their success. No one can lay to his 
charge inattention to the wants of the rank 
and file of the army. And here may be 
the proper place for me to say that the rank 
and file, who now stand a living wall be¬ 
tween us and our enemies, careless of life, 


#■ 


r" * 















16 


careless of health, careful for nothing but 
the country’s honor and approval, should be 
honored whilst they live, and their memory, 
when they are gone, must be enshrined in 
the nation’s heart. Whilst the relics that re¬ 
main of their families should be cared for 
to the utmost of the nation’s ability, great 
is the debt the country owes these men, 
and not this nation alone—but the suffer¬ 
ing masses in every clime and in every land 
owe a debt to these champions of human 
liberty, who are struggling this day to de¬ 
fend republicanism from the attacks of the 
aristocrats and imperialists at home and 
abroad, and the latter not less than the 
former. (Applause.) 

The Triumph of Republicanism over 
Imperialism Predicted. 

In this connection I quote from a “ Let¬ 
ter on the relation of the white and African 
races in the United States,” addressed to 
President Lincoln, dated May 18th, 1862. 
The extracts strikingly depict the chief fea¬ 
tures of the two conditions, and offer a pre¬ 
diction entirely consonant with the opinion 
I am now expressing: 

“Tlie rebellion that is now shaking the foundation 
of the nation, is the struggle of Imperi lism to estab¬ 
lish itself in a republican land. Imperialism, the gov¬ 
ernment of the many by the few, the dominion of un¬ 
checked, despotic will, is one of the curses resulting 
from man’s apostacy. For ages it has been regarded 
as a necessary evil amongst men—a thing of Divine 
appointment—and the fortunate incumbents of this 
power, for long centuries, have sheltered themselves 
behind this opinion, and strengthened themselves in 
tliis conviction. Nor are they altogether without au¬ 
thority in this; for, as despotic rule is a curse, we 
must admit that instruments for its infliction have 
been permitted. 

“ Republicanism , on the other hand, is a deliverance 
from this curse of despotic rule—a condition in which 
all men are equal before the law—and the law is su¬ 
preme—meteing out equal protection and equal jus¬ 
tice. Such was (lie plan of our republicanism as pro¬ 
jected by the fathers of the nation ; such has been the 
practice of most of the communities embraced within 
the broad field of the Republic; but in other sections 
of the land a different economy prevailed and contin¬ 
ues to prevail; an imperiali.-m of a circumscribed 
character has been practiced, which necessarily saps 
the foundation of republicanism and educates the peo¬ 
ple to imperial rule. This has been the source of our 
danger. and in this manifest weakness the Imperialists 
of Europe have found the greatest temptation to tam¬ 
per with our prosperity and integrity.” 

And further the writer says : 

“The history of the great rebellion is not yet com¬ 
plete; the unseen influences which have produced it 
are not fully disclosed : but the dim outline begins to 
take form and place, so that the true friends and ac¬ 
tual enemies of this Republic will soon be discovered, 
and each receive the place in history that infamy or 
honor may award. When the work is complete, when 
the last act in the great and fearful drama shall have 
been closed, it will be found that our country has 
been the victim of a conspiracy, the magnitude of 
which is without a parallel in the history of nations 
—though wicked yet rendered grand through the 


combination of potent and princely influences arrayed, 
and to be arrayed against us, because of the issues in 
question, and the result of the conflict—issues of no 
local character, hut involving the fate of that system 
of government known in contradistinction to impe¬ 
rial rule as republicanism .”—(Letter of Rev. James 
Mitchell to President Lincoln, on the white and Afri¬ 
can races in the United States, showing the necessity 
of the Colonization of the latter, p. 4.) 

Why we are feared, hated , and re - 
spectcd by Monarchists. 

Imperialism lias feared the rising power 
of a nation whose citizens are sovereigns, 
holding equal place in law and in society. 
Such a natron, rising in her silent gran¬ 
deur, unarmed and indifferent to the de- 
caying monarchies of the old world, desir¬ 
ing no privilege at their hands but to be let 
alone, was a source of alarm in times of 
peace. But bow do they now regard her 
when they see her quiet citizens, at the call 
of one of their number, transformed as if 
by magic into mail-clad soldiers, each one 
of those soldiers himself a captain, self- 
reliant, self-poised, endowed with that indi¬ 
viduality which enters into the character of 
every true hero. What must the advocates 
of imperialism think in such a case ? IIow 
do the suffering millions look with fear and * 
dread lest in this struggle we should suffer 
defeat, or our leaders stumble to our fall! 


Liberty and Justice the foundation of 
our prosperity. 


But one thing assures me that, we shall 
suffer no final defeat, no overwhelming re¬ 
pulse ; it is this, the God of our fathers and 
our God is committed to the support of 
liberty and justice. Let us place ourselves 
right on the record with Him, and keep 
ourselves there, and then, come what may, 
the issue will be well. There is a future 
before the Republic more glorious than we 
have yet conceived. Let us have faith in. 
cur destiny and in that future, for the time 
will come when the principles we now ad¬ 
vocate and now defend with life and fortune 
will be the heritage of every nation under 
the sun. We may not be the chief among 
such nations, but we will have the gratifi¬ 
cation of knowing that we were amongst 
the first, in the providence of God, to as¬ 
sume a bold and decided stand for the great 
principles of civil and religious liberty. 
(Cheers.) 

At the conclusion of Gen. Lane’s address 
the Glee Club sang a patriotic song, and a 
band which was in- attendance played a 
number of national airs. * The meeting 
fcl >sed with three times three thundering 
cheers for Abraham Lincoln, and three 
more for Gen. Lane. 









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